Hard Labour

Hard Labour for Britain's hard-working families

The devastating impact of Labour's tax grab on middle income families has been exposed by the publication of new evidence on take-home pay.The money left in people's pockets after tax payments fell last year for the first time in a decade, as Gordon Brown's stealth levies hit family budgets. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Chancellor's tax-raising 2002 budget brought ten years of growth in household income shuddering to a halt.

This resulted in average household income, after tax and benefit payments, falling by 0.2 per cent to £408 a week between 2002-3 and 2003-4. Hardest hit were middle income earners on more than £27,000 a year, who suffered a 1% cut in income.Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary David Willetts seized on the IFS report to declare: "If hard-working families who have been feeling the pinch were wondering what happened to all the extra wealth they worked so hard to generate, now they know: Gordon Brown swiped the lot and a bit more on top."

He told conservatives.com: "This is a devastating evaluation of what Labour have done to hard-working families. On average, they got poorer last year compared with the year before. This is a direct result of the tax rises that Labour brought in after the 2001 election - having told people that taxes wouldn't go up if they won."Mr Willetts said: "No one should be in any doubt that if Labour were to win the coming election, tax rises would bite into family incomes all over again."